Coming down Rt. 3 East heading toward the Lincoln Tunnel, the clouds hung low over Manhattan and reflected the lights of Midtown back onto itself. I couldn’t help but think of this again later last night as I watched EyeHateGod reflect back to Brooklyn the rigors of societal ills largely ignored by art and mainstream politics: addiction, disaffection, nihilism, riffing. The list goes on.

I got to Europa in Brooklyn‘s traditionally Polish Greenpoint neighborhood just in time to see the blackthrash duo Knight Terror open the gig. I’d have pegged them for locals, but apparently they came all the way from Portland, Oregon, to be there (though I imagine there’s a wormhole that makes that trip easier). With lead-vocal/drums and guitar, they blasted through a set of Slayer riffs and blackened screaming — think Midnight or Toxic Holocaust — and did nothing to offend. They had the first pit of the evening, if that’s any example of how they were well received by the crowd who, like myself, was still basically just showing up while they played.

The bill was right on. A Sunday show is a daunting prospect, and you could see in the crowd right from the start who had to get up and go to work Monday morning and who didn’t. I’ll say at the outset I was mostly there to see Hull play new material from the Beyond the Lightless Sky album. Having missed them at their release show with Rwake owing to family concerns and having missed them with Naam at the recent Acheron benefit because I live under a rock, I wasn’t going to let 2011 end without seeing them play those songs. EyeHateGod is great, don’t get me wrong, but it was Hull that got me off my ass.

And no regrets. The three-guitar five-piece gave solid confirmation of why I’ve come to think of them as Brooklyn‘s most formidable and creative metal export in the wake of Beyond the Lightless Sky. Playing second in front of Doomriders and EyeHateGod, their set was about 45 minutes, and in that time, they played only stuff from the new album, which suited me just fine since that’s what I’d been hoping for to start with, and hit off immediately with the complex rhythmic mayhem of “Earth From Water,” which, like the rest of it, they nailed.

Guitarist Nick Palmirotto‘s delivery of the songs — his vocals are probably the most consistently present in the songs, but at any point in a Hull set, anyone but drummer Jeff Stieber could be singing, and there’s usually more than one at once — is among the most passionate I’ve seen in a long time, and just off a recent month-long US tour, Hull made the Europa stage look and sound too small. Palmirotto, fellow guitarists Drew Mack and Carmine Laietta and bassist Seanbryant Dunn traded parts back and forth, growls and screams and shouts comingling with cleaner singing that seemed to be drowning in its own massive tonality. For Stieber‘s part, every snare hit on Beyond the Lightless Sky sounds like a sentence ending, and that remained true for the live set as well, but watching him play, I was all the more impressed for the ghost notes and subtler hits he works into his timing amidst the massive fills.

There’s some of that on the album, listening back now, but the impression I got during their set was it’s even more than they captured in the studio, which is saying something. The only place Hull saw a dip in momentum was between the songs. After tearing through “Beyond the Lightless Sky” or “Fire Vein” before closing out with “False Priest,” they had to stop and tune after each cut. Obviously they’re busy while they’re playing the songs themselves, but I felt like with three guitars, the bass and the drums, there should be noise the whole time, something to keep that forward drive moving. On the record, their longer tracks are offset by ambient/instrumental pieces, and I wanted some of that side to show up in the live setting as well.

Of course, it was a homecoming show for them, basically, playing to a crowd who knows them and has known them for a while, so I think it’s safe to say they were playing it casual, and either way, they killed it. Each off-time hit, on-a-dime turn and tempo shift was powerful, and they hit it all hard enough to remind what a month solid on the road can really do in service to a band’s chemistry. Some of Laietta‘s leads came through low in the mix (it might have been where I was standing), but I didn’t envy Doomriders having to follow.

But then, I’ve never been a particularly huge fan of Doomriders, or at least not as big a fan of the music as I am of the band’s name, which is unfuckwithably cool. Guitarist/vocalist Nate Newton had “Property of Converge” spraypainted on the back of his Orange cabinets (he was also in Old Man Gloom), and the Boston foursome took a bit to get into the swing of their set, but handled the songs well once they did. The thing about Doomriders that’s always kind of gotten to me, especially seeing them live as I have a couple times over the years, is I feel like the riffs are purposefully dumbed down. There’s nothing wrong with a band trying to keep their approach simple, but somehow Doomriders seem to be winking while they’re playing as if to say, “Yeah, we know we’re smarter than this.”

It wouldn’t be anything near the felonies committed when EyeHateGod took the stage — stabbings, arson, police brutality, jury tampering — but there was some violence in honor of Doomriders‘ energetic riffing and Newton‘s Tom Araya-esque shouts. I stood in back for most of the set, and did the same for EyeHateGod, and the now-full room was more than glad to go along with what the band had on offer, bassist Jebb Riley and drummer Chris Bevalaqua working up a sweat keeping up with the trying pace of Chris Pupecki and Newton‘s guitars, which were very much at the fore.

They didn’t really have me hooked until their last song, the irresistible groove of which was as an appropriate a lead-in as EyeHateGod could ask for. Regarding the New Orleans sludge mainstays/progenitors/forebears, I’ll say this: I had previously sworn off seeing EyeHateGod. I had (and I’m sure they were really feeling the loss) done so because I felt like every time I went and saw EyeHateGod, I was just enabling them to further delay putting out a new album, and god dammit, it’s time for a new EyeHateGod album. It’s about six years past time for a new EyeHateGod album, actually, and you know what the band’s not doing when they’re popping up to New York for shows? They’re not putting out a new album. So I said I wasn’t going to see them anymore until they had a new record to support.

Didn’t work out, clearly, but I did manage to gain some hope that the next EyeHateGod album will be good. Hear me out. When I last interviewed Jimmy Bower, he subtly expressed some concern that part of the reason it had taken the band so long to record and release a new album was that he didn’t know if they could be as dirty, as gritty and as fucked up as they once were. And after watching last night’s EyeHateGod set in Brooklyn, I realized this: EyeHateGod are fuck ups. Through and through. And it wasn’t even watching drummer Joe LaCaze snort something before they started playing, and it wasn’t frontman Mike Williams‘ occasional professions of his desire to die, it was Bower himself.

Arguably, unless bassist Gary Mader or guitarist Brian Patton (also of Soilent Green) owns a small business or something like that, Jimmy Bower seems to be the dude in EyeHateGod who most has his shit together. He plays in Down, he’s usually the public face, and he seems all around like a down to earth kind of guy. But when he broke a string last night before the band even started playing — it was during their big feedback opening — and effectively derailed the set before it even began, I stepped back and said, “You know, things are gonna be okay for the next EyeHateGod.”

Because that’s not the kind of fuck up you actively make. No one’s setting out to do that. It just happens. It’s who you are. Believe me, I know. I once watched as my car keys swirled around in a toilet and then were gone. If Jimmy Bower is at all worried EyeHateGod wouldn’t be able to be what they once were, he need have no such concerns. Ultimately, you can’t fight what you are, and as I watched Patton set his guitar down (still feeding back) and go over to help Bower restring his own, I was utterly comforted in knowing that whenever the next EyeHateGod studio effort materializes, things will be just fine.

To that end, they did play two new songs they’ve been kicking around for a while: “Medicine Noose” and “New Orleans is the New Vietnam” amidst the host of noisy, groovy familiars. Their set was a wash of riffs, cigarette smoke, and crowd violence. People were on and off the stage the whole time, and the rush to the stage when they finally got going was immediate. My back still hurts. Brooklyn, it seemed, didn’t care that it’s seen this show before. The crowd — myself included — was happy to revel in the sonic “opting out” that has always been EyeHateGod‘s hallmark, though at around midnight, the room started to thin out, as the aforementioned “had to work today” portion split.

With some acknowledgement of the blasphemy, I’ll add that I didn’t stay to see them finish either. At 12:30, I looked at my watch, realized I wouldn’t be home until 2AM, and made my way out. I can only assume, since I haven’t heard otherwise, that the show is still going on, well into Monday afternoon, and that EyeHateGod are continuing to destroy Europa as they’ve done so many times in the past.

A bunch of extra pics after the jump. Thanks for reading.

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I’ve heard the word sludge used to classify bands from Pro-Pain to Neurosis to Grand Funk Railroad, so let’s be clear right off the bat that when I talk about sludge, I mean ultra-aggressive, screaming doom, played slow, played angry. It’s a term as nebulous as any other, but going from that specific definition, and considering the bands I’m about to recommend who play it, we should have a pretty good basis to work from.

There are some acts who take sludge to vicious extremes — see Fistula or Sollubi — blending in elements of black metal or SunnO))) style drone minimalism, but I’m not talking about them either. Where to start with sludge is the root of the subgenre, the key formative groups who’ve made it possible for a new generation to pull the sound in the multiple directions they have.

Because I couldn’t narrow it down to five, here are seven killer sludge bands to start with:

Crowbar: Their later material actually has little in common with what’s currently thought of as sludge, but 1991′s Obedience thru Suffering and 1993′s Crowbar are essential to understanding what the sound has become. The latter (recently reissued) is a better starting point for its more memorable songs.

Eyehategod: As much an influence in lifestyle and persona as for their music, the New Orleans gods of sonic fuck-all have nonetheless produced some of sludge’s most classic material. Just not in the last decade. At all. Start with 1993′s Take as Needed for Pain.

Negative Reaction: Their early stuff was more geared to sci-fi, which made the long-running Long Island outfit unique among their viscous peers. 2000′s endofyourerror saw them start to veer away from that into more personal lyrical territory, but it’s a stunningly abrasive listen nonetheless.

Buzzov*en: Dude. To a Frown. Dude.

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No, they don’t announce the release date of a new album to go along with it. Here’s news from the PR wire:

New Orleans-based, doomed-out, punk/blues/southern rock hardcore freaks, Eyehategod, will head out on another American trek this December in support of absolutely nothing but the glory of hedonism and debauchery. Eyehategod are the originators of a genre now known as “sludge,” a combination of raw, sick vocals and slow, heavy, down-tuned, grooving negative riffs that run together in a live setting in a sometimes volatile mess of guitar feedback, pounding drums, cigarettes, beer, vodka and hurt feelings. See the band in the following cities before they self-destruct:

Eyehategod Winter Tour 2010
w/ Phobia
11/30 Bottletree Birmingham, AL
12/01 Hideaway Johnson City, TN
12/02 Tremont Charlotte, NC w/ Crowbar
12/03 The Oasis Charleston, SC
12/04 The Earl Atlanta, GA w/ Sons of Tonatiuh
12/05 Hi Tine Memphis, TN
12/06 Birdy’s Indianapolis, IN w/ Goatwhore
12/07 Downtown Little Rock, AR w/ Goatwhore
12/08 Drifter’s Fayetteville, AR
12/09 The Marquee Tulsa, OK
12/10 Kordova San Antonio, TX
12/11 Reno’s Dallas, TX
12/12 Red Seven Austin, TX

I missed Eyehategod when they played their Thursday set at this year’s Roadburn festival, which is a bummer. But now, thanks to the wonders of technology, even I can pretend I was there with this live audio stream. If you missed the last two batches of streams, they are here, and here.

And if you’d like to read what Mr. Bower Power himself, Jimmy Bower, has to say about playing Roadburn, check out our interview here. Please enjoy the set and thanks once again to Walter and the Roadburn crew:

Eyehategod live at Roadburn 2010

Jimmy Bower is a good dude. For example, when I talked to the Eyehategod guitarist for the following interview, it was May 25, just before the band played a show supporting Pentagram as they both headed to the Maryland Deathfest. The conversation opened as Bower was reading an interview with recently-departed Slipknot bassist Paul Gray, which led to a discussion of Peter Steele and Ronnie James Dio and the affect that all three had on the metal community over the years. It was, in a word, a bummer.

But Bower has an outlook and familiarity such that, by the end of our talk, we were laughing that they should work new songs into the Chicago sets on their US tour — which starts tonight in Orlando (see how timely this site is?) — where they’re playing complete albums to see if they can throw anyone off guard. As a member of a band whose reputation for unpredictability and an unrelentingly negative approach precedes them, he might not be what you’d expect, but this is the second or third time we’ve spoken and it’s always certainly a pleasure on my end.

Also the drummer of Southern metal supergroup Down, Bower is joined in Eyehategod by vocalist Mike Williams, fellow guitarist Brian Patton (Soilent Green), bassist Gary Mader and drummer Joey LaCaze, and though they haven’t issued a full-length since 2000′s Confederacy of Ruined Lives, the band has seen their cult fanbase grow immensely over the last 10 years, leading to an entire league of imitators, highly successful shows when they happen and, just this past April, a slot at the Roadburn festival in The Netherlands.

It’s true, I forgot to ask when his instrumental stoner project The Mystick Krewe of Clearlight would have a new release, but in the interview below, Bower does lay out the plans for the long-awaited Eyehategod studio album and discuss, humbly, his growth as a player and the expansive reach of Eyehategod‘s music.

Q&A is after the jump, as always. Please enjoy.

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If your Friday night plans didn’t yet involve flying to Austin, Texas, to catch an Eyehategod show, you might want to revise your evening’s goings on, as per the PR wire:

New Orleans sludge overlords Eyehategod will be performing a special one-off show this Friday, May 7th at Emo’s in Austin, Texas where they’ll play their coveted first two full-lengths In the Name of Suffering and Take as Needed for Pain records in their entirety! IN. THEIR. ENTIRETY! It’s a damn good day to be in Austin.

Eyehategod will kick off their long-anticipated US tour alongside psychedelic black metallers Nachtmystium (from June 4-15) and a rotating roster of other killer openers on June 3 at Blackbooth in Orlando, Florida and wind down with two special shows at the Empty Bottle in Chicago, Illinois. Tickets are on sale now. Special limited VIP packages will be available on select dates, including South Carolina, Kentucky and Maryland as well as Michigan and North Carolina (both recent additions). Check details below:

Eyehategod US Tour 2010:
6/03/2010 Backbooth – Orlando, FL w/ Withered
6/04/2010 Ground Zero – Spartanburg, SC w/ Withered *
6/05/2010 Volume 11 – Raleigh, NC w/ Withered, Black Tusk *
6/06/2010 Headliners – Louisville, KY w/ Black Tusk *
6/07/2010 Fubar – St Louis, MO
6/08/2010 Muse – Nashville, TN w/ Withered
6/09/2010 Alley Katz – Richmond, VA w/ Black Tusk, Strong Intention
6/10/2010 Krug’s – Frederick, MD w/ Brutal Truth, Strong Intention *
6/11/2010 Unitarian Church – Philadelphia, PA w/ Brutal Truth, Black Anvil, Tombs
6/12/2010 Europa – Brooklyn, NY w/ Brutal Truth, Black Anvil, Tombs
6/13/2010 Club Hall – Providence, RI w/ Brutal Truth, Black Anvil, Tombs, Howl
6/14/2010 Daniel St – Milford, CT w/ Howl
6/15/2010 Rocko’s – Manchester, NH w/ Howl
6/16/2010 Bug Jar – Rochester, NY
6/17/2010 Now That’s Class – Cleveland, OH w/ Keelhaul, The Atlas Moth
6/18/2010 Blondie’s Detroit, MI w/ The Atlas Moth, Strong Intention *
6/19/2010 Empty Bottle – Chicago, IL w/ Anal Cunt, Weekend Nachos, Strong Intention
6/20/2010 Empty Bottle – Chicago, IL w/ The Atlas Moth
* Limited VIP packages available

This is the last of my Roadburn video (I think), but I figured you’d get a kick out of it. As promised in the headline, it’s the first song of Eyehategod‘s set at the Afterburner show on April 18, preceded by some killer stage banter from vocalist Mike Williams. My favorite part is when he says, “I like The Rolling Stones. I must be a dick or something.” Classic.

12:05AM: City Hotel, Tilburg, The Netherlands: You know, before the day started (and by day, I mean the show, which started at 4PM), I didn’t think it was too ambitious a plan to review all of the Afterburner special post-Roadburn event in one sitting. “Nah, I can handle it,” I said with confidence that only my first shots of caffeine since last Wednesday could have given me. “No problem.”

Well, the thing is that Afterburner, while not quite as intense to witness as Roadburn itself because it only runs on two, not four, stages at the 013, is still a great deal of show. Even in this allegedly more laid-back setting of just the Green Room and the Bat Cave, I found myself unable to see absolutely everything, leaving me once again to pick my battles. This is not a complaint. I want to make that perfectly clear. It’s like trying to choose what to see at the Met in New York. Pretty much whatever direction you head in, you’re gonna see some cool shit, but to do it all in one day can’t be done.

In other words, bear with me. This could be a while.

Jex Thoth opened in the Green Room at 4PM. For a nifty comparison, I’ll put their opening slot today in contrast with Death Row‘s yesterday in the main hall. You know those Windows 7 commercials where they take the already exceptionally good-looking people and they all start talking about how they thought of Windows 7, and then it cuts to a dream sequence of even more cartoonish exceptionally good-looking people? That’s like the jump from Death Row, who already ruled, to Jex Thoth, who were good at what they were doing, but a little silly at the same time.

It’s no real puzzle why the San Francisco five-piece got such a huge response from the crowd (which Death Row could have used some more of yesterday afternoon). Be-caped lead singer Jessica Thoth being some kind of ritualistic cult doom sex symbol certainly doesn’t hurt. Yeah guys, she’s the cute redhead who’s into Pentagram and plays with candles and incense on stage while wearing a cape and singing about serpents and flame vigils. Have fun living in the woods together after your pagan wedding, raising naked children of the forest.

Because that’s supposed to be the fantasy, right? I don’t know. I didn’t get into the set. The music was cool, I guess, but nothing really mind-boggling, and I just have a hard time taking that kind of band seriously. You know, if you were a fat bald dude hitting those same notes, playing with incense and wearing a cape, you wouldn’t be playing Roadburn. You’d be playing Dungeons & Dragons. No, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. In your mother’s basement. Where you live. Oh, and you’re 47.

I think I’ve made my point. Looks matter. Even in doom, being the proverbial hot girl is helpful.

When they were done, Orange Sunshine‘s late-’60s obsessed garage psychedelic rock was a refreshing change of pace and a nod to the stoner rock purist set, who surely appreciated the lack of posturing. I know I did. I had to chuckle though at how much one of their riffs reminded me of Blue Cheer‘s version of “The Hunter,” but I’d soon learn just how honestly they come by it, since after an extended heavy jam on The Rolling Stones‘ “Gimme Shelter,” drummer/vocalist/Euro-Chong lookalike Guy Tavares shouted out their set to the memory of Dickie Peterson, then they closed with “Summertime Blues” and “Rock Me Baby,” in that order. There’s a word for that, and that word is “charm.”

And I’ll pause here for a quick side note. Nachtmystium played this fest. Where else in the world are you going to have the opportunity to see Nachtmystium and Orange Sunshine in the same building? These kinds of things only exist at Roadburn.

Church of Misery continued their assault on common decency with their set, playing mostly the same stuff as Friday when they were on the main stage, but killing nonetheless for the smaller capacity venue that is the Green Room. Hell, I’m relatively certain Walter could have had Church of Misery play the same songs every four days in a different room and people would have migrated from one stage to the other to see them again. It’s not a chance that comes up every day, and watching guitarist Tom Sutton do his stoner rock softshoe while vocalist Yoshiakki Negishi pretends to shoot people in the crowd — well shucks, my eyes get all misty just thinking about it.

Having seen them three times now over the last two years (all Roadburn performances), I can say they haven’t yet put out a studio record that captures just how heavy they actually are in a live setting. Houses of the Unholy came close, but the sheer volume they wield might be too powerful for modern recording technology. In this way, they are truly ahead of their time. As for their riffs, I think we all know they fall under the heading, “born too late,” which is just fine.

It was almost cruel to have to witness them do it, but Sweden‘s Graveyard followed in a sonic twist that came on like a big break between Church of Misery and Eyehategod. No complaints, it’s just not really my thing at this point. But hey, if you like skinny Swedish dudes with expensive equipment, vintage t-shirts and tight flannels, ’70s mustaches and hair looking like something off an Allman Brothers album cover, playing the rock and roll their dads probably listened to, then have I got a band for you.

To be fair, they were incredibly tight across the board, and the Green Room was so crowded that for most of the set, the only vantage point I had was through the doorway. It’s like there was a sign outside saying, “Must Be this Cool to Enter” with a line drawn under some guy with bellbottoms’ ‘stache as a measure. I’m nowhere near that cool, so I got some falafel and waited for Eyehategod. Things could have been worse.

I never fail to be surprised that I’m not the world’s biggest Eyehategod fan. According to my records, I own all of theirs (which isn’t saying much since they haven’t put out a full-length in a decade), but if you were to ask me to name six Eyehategod songs, I don’t think I could do it. Well, maybe six, but probably not 10. And I’ve dug it every time I’ve seen them, tonight included. They were fucking great, but in terms of what I listen to on a given afternoon, I’ll rarely reach for Eyehategod while sitting on the porch and sipping a beer.

A fun note; when bassist Gary Mader broke a string, vocalist Mike Williams, guitarist Brian Patton and drummer Joe LaCaze did a quick couple songs under the moniker of their “side-project,” Fuckmouth, and I managed to catch it on video, which you can see below.

Williams was good and fucked up tonight. When he came out on stage, I said to myself, “This looks like a guy who’s going to fall over at some point during his set,” and sure enough — toward the end, to his credit — he went backwards into LaCaze‘s drums. Where was Jimmy Bower in all this? Over up front on stage right, mostly in the dark, playing to the crowd. Kicking ass like he will.

Eyehategod was a good note to end Roadburn on. A slow, rung out, feedbacked note that seemed to last even after the amps were shut off. But being the greedy son of a bitch I am, I wanted to see what Dutch locals The Machine were doing in the Bat Cave, so I meandered in the middle of Eyehategod‘s set into the other room, only to find the young trio jamming out heavy Colour Haze style with vocalist/guitarist David Eering throwing in some “Stone Free” and not sounding like a complete jackass while doing it, which is nothing short of an astonishing feat for so junior and so caucasian a player.

Jamming is apparently their thing, but they do it well, and have two records out already with a third written and are looking for a label. I can’t imagine one of the sundry European heavy rock labels wouldn’t be interested given the opportunity. I know I would.

But alas, I only caught their last two songs — both jams — and they were done, so I went back to the Green Room to close out the night and the fest with Eyehategod. They slammed their way through an astonishing amount of material, and I’m pretty sure I heard Williams at one point start singing Pantera‘s “I’m Broken,” though it could have just been a coincidence of cadence. In any case, good times, and when it was done, I split out on the quick (no afterparties for my unfriendly ass) and came back here to write about it, stopping only for some pommes frites along the way.

This review is long enough, so I’ll save any grand reflections on Roadburn for another time under the consideration that even the most interested of Obelisk attendees has failed to make it this far (I don’t take it personally). My plan for tomorrow is to get up, be out of here by 11AM checkout and head — where else? — to Schiphol airport in Amsterdam to see when and if I can reschedule my flight. The Patient Mrs. says it might not be until next weekend, but I need to go in-person anyway since British Airways‘ sundry hotlines and website have proven useless in this volcanic clusterfuck. I expect to spend a good deal of time waiting on line only to find out nothing, but these are the things we have to do, aren’t they? That’s a small price to pay for the weekend I just had.

And I’ll tell you something else: If I am stuck in Europe for another week, you bet your ass I’m getting my francophile self to Paris tout de suite. I’m pretty sure I’d be the first displaced American ever to do that. Ever. In the history of the world. Ever.

Until then…

Personally, I might have stopped booking for Roadburn 2010 after the Goatsnake reunion. That would be enough for me. Then the following dialog could take place between the two sides of my brain:

“Hey, I’ve got a four day festival going on.”
“Oh yeah, who’s playing?”
“Goatsnake.”
“Killer! Anyone else?”
“Nope, just Goatsnake.”
“Well, what are you gonna do for the rest of the four days?”
“Umm, it’s Goatsnake. Who the hell cares?”
“Awesome, see you there.”

And… scene. Fortunately for heads the world over, though, Roadburn organizer Walter is much better at putting together festivals than I would be. And though it’s looking less and less likely that I’m going to be able to make it to 013 two years in a row (The Patient Mrs. has more or less issued a kybosh directive), I’m still pretty psyched for all the goings on in Tilburg next April. A batch of new bands have been announced. Here’s the story from Blabbermouth:

Seminal New Orleans, Louisiana, sludge-legends Eyehategod, along with Outlaw Order and Jarboe, have been added to the Roadburn festival lineup on Thursday, April 15, 2010. In addition, Soilent Green and Sourvein have been confirmed for Roadburn‘s special Afterburner event on Sunday, April 18, at the 013 venue in Tilburg, Holland.

In other news, seminal doom legends Death Row will be part of the Roadburn festival lineup on Friday, April 16. Victor Griffin, Joe Hasselvander and Marty Swaney are bringing Death Row back heavier than ever. But this time they’re leaving the elements of deception behind? the darker images, which to some degree blinded them, and tore them apart time and again from the inside out.

Unfortunately, this reformation of Death Row will be without Bobby Liebling. “Parts of the past have certainly left scars on some of us that have yet to heal. Until then, we move forward with best wishes and prayers for Bobby‘s success in Pentagram, and in his personal life,” says Victor Griffin. “What you get from this Death Row will be the same true-to-heart heaviness you expect. Songs written during the formative years by Griffin will comprise most of the set list, along with songs penned by Joe, Victor and co-written with Bobby, such as “The Ghoul” and “All Your Sins,” which feature lyrics by Liebling.

He’s got a lot to say, does Mike Williams of Eyehategod. He said it in his book, Cancer as a Social Activity, and he’s been saying it for years on stage with his various bands. Now, as the PR wire informs, he’s got a spoken word 7″ available:

Mike IX Williams, vocalist for Eyehategod, Outlaw Order, Arson Anthem and author of Cancer as a Social Activity: Affirmations of World’s End delivers antisocial misanthropic spoken word and power electronics on his newly released, limited edition 7″.

Side Zero features “That’s What the Obituary Said,” a spoken prose piece with ambient backing by Ryan (The Guilt Of…) McKern. The other Side Zero features “Ten Suicides,” originally a Bloodyminded track with vocals by Mike IX Williams and now newly remixed by Mark Solotroff (Intrinsic Action/Bloodyminded). Original artwork by Mike IX presented in an 11″ x 17″ poster and lyric booklet. Black with yellow splatter colored vinyl. Limited to 500 copies. For ordering info, visit Chrome Peeler Records.

I’ve been hesitant to post a live review of Monday night’s Eyehategod show in Brooklyn for a couple reasons. First and foremost, I’m not the world’s biggest Eyehategod fan. I dig it, obviously, but for me to sit here and tell you that I’ve followed the New Orleans sludge masters since the early-’90s days of In the Name of Suffering and Take as Needed for Pain would just be dishonest. I own the albums, and several others, but I’m hardly Mr. Ground Floor EHG. I’m not Johnny Come Lately either, but in some ways, I feel underqualified to write about them.

Likewise, for me to sit here and say, “Well man, Eyehategod sure did kick ass in Brooklyn” — even though they did — would be boring as hell. It was my third Europa show in a month, packed as hell, and I was still glad to be there. That’s saying something in itself. And yeah, Eyehategod were great. Jimmy Bower rules, Brian Patton rules, Mike Williams stood on stage and accused us northerners of thinking the south is ignorant, called us motherfuckers and told us he loved us. It was a good show. I’m just not sure how much more there is to say about it than that.

I got there just before Unearthly Trance went on. It was late for a Monday, but don’t ask me for the particulars. I know I didn’t get back to the valley until 3AM, but I wasn’t really checking my watch before that, so whenever it was, it was. They played about 30 seconds of their first song before blowing their bass head and having to find a replacement. To their credit, they gave an okay showing once they got started again. Neither am I the world’s biggest Unearthly Trance fan, and seeing them play in New York at this point is hardly out of the ordinary, but I wasn’t pissed for having to watch them either.

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